The last few weeks have been interesting ones for Butler Club Esports. With students in self-isolation, many of our teams’ seasons suspended, and a shift towards online learning – and gaming! – only a few teams have been able to continue competing. Our varsity/BIG EAST League of Legends and Rocket League teams are playing conference matches, but Butler’s Call of Duty squad has also been very active over the past few weeks – and next weekend is the highlight of their season!
The College CoD League (CCL) Season 2 began in January with a set of round-robin matches between teams in four different regions. Butler completed the regular season with a 10-7 match record for 7th place in the Midwest region, a group featuring teams like in-state rival Purdue (16-1) and fellow BIG EAST member Marquette (4-11), with Concord University’s Concord Esports Maroon (17-0, 51-0) taking the Midwest regular-season title without dropping a map.
The CCL Season 2 Playoffs will begin next Friday night, May 1, with the first round of matches set to begin at 8:30pm ET. #28 Butler will play #7 University of Texas at Dallas (16-1), streamed live at twitch.tv/butleresports. Butler’s second-round match of the double-elimination tournament will take place the next night, against either #10 University of Illinois Orange (15-2) or #23 Oregon (12-5).
Butler’s Call of Duty squad is led by returning captain Jack “Vortex” Glynn ’21 and features freshman talent in Joey “Plazma” Gruszkowski ’23, both of whom are top-12 players in the CCL Midwest. They would like to equal or best their CCL Season 1 performance, when the Bulldogs went 2-2 with a top-12 finish. This may be a difficult feat, however, with tough opponents right at the start of the tournament. “We’ve had our ups and downs throughout the season,” Vortex says; “for those who followed the team, they can attest to that. Coronavirus hit us hard in the abilities for us to be able to get practice in and getting our players the things they need to compete. With that being said, we are considered the underdogs heading into the playoff bracket. We have nothing to lose because we are not expected to win. Using that mentality, Butler’s CoD team plans to fly under the radar and shock some spectators in the CCL. I would not be surprised to see a strong losers’ bracket run by any means.”
Catch #28 Butler vs #7 UTD at 8:30pm ET on Friday 5/1 live at twitch.tv/butleresports in the first round of the CCL playoffs.
